Under the category of a picture is worth a thousand words was this from Friday morning: The Nuggets took a team picture, a version of which was placed on Instagram. In it, guard Ty Lawson stands all the way at one end, near but not next to rookie Evan Fornier, and could not muster a smile, instead opting for a forlorn look.

Not much about Friday morning — or Thursday night, for that matter — was cause for happiness for Lawson.

He knew then that his previously diagnosed heel strain/contusion was worse. Upon further review, he said, it’s a full-blown complete tear of the plantar fascia in his right heel. That news, and the fact that it didn’t come until nine days after he originally injured it, left Lawson fuming.

“I don’t think it was diagnosed right when I first had it done,” Lawson said after the Nuggets’ pregame shootaround Friday morning at the Pepsi Center. “It’s a little frustrating since it happened nine days ago and yesterday I just figured out that I had it. So it’s frustrating that it took that long.”

Because of persistent pain, Lawson felt the need to get another examination.

“I just kept getting hurt the last couple of days, so I decided to go get it checked out again,” he said.

That evaluation, an MRI done Thursday, revealed a complete plantar fascia tear, Lawson said. No one has a timetable for his return — he remains officially day to day — but all involved know that Lawson could miss a sig- nificant amount of playing time. Lawson played only 19 minutes in the Nuggets’ loss at San Antonio on Wednesday. He said he probably should have sat out that game.

“I wanted to try to see how it felt,” Lawson said. “There was a little of pressure (to play) from both ends. I wanted to figure it out, see where I was at. I probably shouldn’t have played, thinking about it after the fact.”

“Just ice and whatever (Nuggets trainer Jim Gillen) has in store for me right now,” Lawson said. “Ice, and that’s about it.”

Lawson has team-high averages of 34.8 minutes, 16.7 points and 6.9 assists. He is the most important piece to a fast-paced, fast-break style of play that has helped the Nuggets build a top-four record in the NBA’s Western Conference.

“He’s been playing so well since the all-star break,” said veteran guard Andre Miller, who was a starter in place of Lawson against Brooklyn on Friday night. “Anytime you have a nagging injury that stops you from getting the ball up the court, it slows down everybody.”

Miller agrees with the plan that Lawson must sit as long as necessary to be ready for the playoffs.

“Some injuries you can play through,” Miller said. “Obviously, this is an injury that you’re talking about feet and ankles, you don’t want to put too much pressure on an injury like that. It could easily turn into something worse. At this point in his career, you want to rest it. We’ve positioned ourselves, and still are trying to position ourselves, but I think that’s more important than (playing) the rest of the games in the season.”

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